You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
